


Deliquesce

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1216]
Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-15 02:03:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17520101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Tony is a mushroom hunter in a small town. When Ellie moves into town she finds him weird, but that's a compliment.





	Deliquesce

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 08/29/2002 for the word [deliquesce](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/08/29/deliquesce).
> 
> deliquesce  
> To melt away or to disappear as if by melting.  
> (Chemistry) To dissolve gradually and become liquid by attracting and absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts, acids, andalkalies.  
> To become fluid or soft with age, as certain fungi.
> 
> This is for prompt #1b of the August 2018 Five Prompts Challenge located [here](https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/147463.html).

Tony ignored the fog as he gathered mushrooms from the hillside. He preferred to do his mushroom hunting in the early morning as sometimes it could take most of the day to find a good area to forage for mushrooms to get the amount he needed. He was the sole supplier of the town’s mushrooms and had to be careful to only get the edible ones. 

Starting out this early in the day, the fog was pretty much a guarantee at the higher elevations that he traversed to find the mushrooms. It would eventually burn off as the sun grew brighter during the day. It had taken a while to get used to having to rely on his other senses to tell if someone was nearby or not, but he was pretty good at it now. 

When he did manage to get lucky and find plenty of mushrooms for the day, he’d head back and use the mushrooms in pasta, soup, and other lovely dishes that he shared with the townsfolk. He never made any dishes that didn’t involve mushrooms, though, he always made sure his mushrooms were fresh. Once they’d deliquesced the mushrooms were no good anymore.

He was pretty much a loner, though not like Gibbs their woodsman was. Gibbs was a bastard and his only friends were as grumpy and crotchety as he was. Tony by contrast seemed to be the life of the party, always inviting people over, but he never actually let people get close enough to be his friend. 

Few people noticed this, however. Most considered themselves to be his friend and didn’t realize how much he kept them at a distance. In fact, it wasn’t until a blond stranger moved into town that anyone realized it. 

Bishop had tried the big city life, but she found she didn’t like it. She refused to move back home with her mother and her brothers and their farm, however, so she found another small town far away from them to move to. She already had a job that she could do from anywhere, so it really didn’t matter where she lived. 

There was a small house available and it was perfect for her needs, so she moved right on in. As she started to settle in and get to know the people that lived there she couldn’t help commenting to Tony, “You’re weird.”

Tony blinked at the unexpected statement. He wasn’t sure if that was an insult or compliment. “Sorry?” he questioned.

“No, that was a compliment actually.” Bishop liked weird. She’d always been on the nerdy/geeky side of things and while she didn’t see mushrooms as interesting she could totally feel someone geeking out on mushrooms. 

Tony had lore upon lore about mushrooms hidden in his head and Bishop loved it. She actually considered inviting herself along for one of his mushroom hunts to see if they were really as great as he made them sound. Not only did Tony know an amazing number of mushroom facts, but he could also list every movie that had even the slightest hint of mushrooms in it. 

Since Bishop could do her work from anywhere, she found herself spending a lot of her time at Tony’s typing away on her work as he prepared his mushrooms and turned them into surprisingly amazing dishes. She truly found she was interested in mushrooms the way Tony described him and eventually she spent enough time at his place that he invited her along on his next mushroom hunt.

Something he had never actually done before, but then the villagers put up with him at best. None of them were as into mushrooms as he was and found him to be a tad unnecessary most of the time. Bishop watched how the villagers interacted with Tony and she realized that he never actually shared anything about his life.

She wasn’t sure if that was because mushrooms were his life and no one was interested in them or if there was something more to it, but she was determined to find out. Her curiosity had always gotten the better of her. It wouldn’t be the first time it landed her in trouble if things went that way.

She never quite expected the tale she got after months of digging and trying to get Tony to open up. Apparently, he’d lived here his whole life and had tried a variety of careers before settling into mushroom hunting. He’d worked the woodshop with Gibbs.

He’d even tried his hand at gardening with Ducky. McGee had tried to teach him computers and Ziva had tried to teach him the ways of love. None of them had worked out well.

On top of that, Ziva wasn’t his first attempt at love. That had been Wendy who had left him and the town for greener pastures. He was actually closest to Gibbs and had watched the man go through marriage after marriage and between that and his own experiences had decided that it was better to not let anyone get close than to take a chance and have your heart ripped out.

Bishop actually found that rather sad. She couldn’t help wanting to show Tony that it didn’t have to be that way. She knew, though, that if she tried to pursue him romantically he would immediately go back to keeping her at arm's’ length. 

Instead, she weaseled her way into his life as his friend. She encouraged him to tell her about mushrooms and joined him on his trips to forage for mushrooms. Soon, she was involved in every aspect of his life and he didn’t even realize when it happened. 

She still did her work too, usually as Tony cooked. It worked for them. It actually worked surprisingly well for them.

If Bishop had been the kind of girl who wanted to be married, she was sure she could have gotten him to say yes, but she wasn’t that worried about it. She was just happy to be in his life and share it with him. They didn’t need labels to know what they were to each other. 

The villagers didn’t quite know what to make of them. They came to any village events or celebrations like a couple now, but they weren’t married. A lot of the older folks proclaimed that they were evil, but Bishop and Tony ignored them. 

Bishop had actually sold her house and moved in with Tony, which was also blasphemy as far as the village elders were concerned. Tony didn’t mind though. He appreciate the company and Bishop was never a drain on him like many of the villagers were. 

They were an odd couple to be sure, but a happy one nonetheless. Gibbs actually gave Bishop a very gruesome and disturbing shovel talk. It did nothing to dissuade her from Tony, though, and the two of them settled into life together like two pieces of a puzzle despite what the townsfolk thought of them.

**Author's Note:**

> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> I do not currently have a discord dedicated to my stories. If anyone would be interested in joining a group chat server that is focused on my stories please comment below. Also, if you would like such a thing what kind of things would you like to know about? Please share those with me.
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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